Mangororo Primary school in Ganze Constituency, Kilifi County, has been the talk of town for the better part of this week. Reason being that the school’s infrastructures are dilapidated to a level of ‘no repair’. Infact, photographs of kids seated on bricks trying to avoid flooding waters in one of their classrooms at the school leave many questions than answers.
And the blame games have been on; with local leaders shifting goal posts to save face. First, it was the area Member of Parliament, Hon Teddy Mwambire, who came out to acknowledge that the school was in a sorry state. But, Teddy said that he had close to 30 schools that were in that state and that the 2018/2019 allocation for the constituency was yet to be released.
Then came the Kilifi County Governor, Amason Kingi, who said the dilapidated Mangororo Primary School classrooms are under national government. The Governor claimed that the county Government only deals with, Early Childhood Development, ECD, section which has fully furnished modern classrooms.
As debate on who shoulders responsibility continued to rage, the blame game moved a notch higher with Malindi Member of Parliament, Hon Aisha Jumwa, pointing the accusing finger at the National Government for failing to allocate enough funds to marginalised areas which deserve a development priority.
“When I first saw the photos I thought they were fake, I sent a message to Teddy (Ganze Constituency Legislator) and he confirmed them to be real. He told me that this school is even better, there are others in a worse situation.
He (Hon Teddy) has been an MP for only 18 months, CDF was launched 15 years ago, social media users in Nairobi have abused Kilifi county Government and Governor Kingi but they should know education remains a function of the national govt, education should be devolved because I am sure in 7 years kingi
would’ve fixed this”, said Hon Aisha Jumwa.
On Saturday 11th May, 2019, Hon Aisha paid a courtesy call to Mangororo Primary School (on invitation of the area MP, Hon. Teddy Mwambire) where she donated 50desks 100bags of cement and 300pieces of iron sheets in aid of the school.
Mangororo Primary school is only one of the many schools in the country that continue to grapple with poor infrastructure and even inadequate teachers; across the country. The untold suffering that kids in these schools undergo is so devastating. The situation has been worsened by increased enrollment as a result of Free Education and 100 percent transition policy.
Something needs to be done to not only provide infrastructure funds to such schools but also provide level ground for access to universal quality education by all learners.